title: Amundsen Sea Mollusca from the BIOPEARL II expedition.
abstract: Information regarding the molluscs in this dataset is based on the epibenthic sledge (EBS) samples collected during the cruise BIOPEARL II / JR179 RRS James Clark Ross in the austral summer 2008. A total of 35 epibenthic sledge deployments have been performed at five locations in the Amundsen Sea at Pine Island Bay (PIB) and the Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE) at depths ranging from 476 to 3501m. This presents a unique and important collection for the Antarctic benthic biodiversity assessment as the Amundsen Sea remains one of the least known regions in Antarctica. Indeed the work presented in this dataset is based on the first benthic samples collected with an EBS in the Amundsen Sea. However we assume that the data represented are an underestimation of the real fauna present in the Amundsen Sea. In total 9261 specimens belonging to 6 classes 55 families and 97 morphospecies were collected. The species richness per station varied between 6 and 43. Gastropoda were most species rich 50 species followed by Bivalvia (37), Aplacophora (5), Scaphopoda (3) and one from each of Polyplacophora and Monoplacophora.
authors.affiliation: British Antarctic Survey (BAS), High Cross Madingley Road, CB3 0ET, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Camille
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Moreau
authors.forename: Katrin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Linse
authors.forename: Huw
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Griffiths
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Barnes
authors.forename: Stefanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kaiser
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Glover
authors.forename: Chester
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sands
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Strugnell
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Enderlein
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Geissler
keywords: Amundsen Sea; Antarctica; Aplacophora; BIOPEARL II; Bivalvia; Gastropoda; Mollusca; Monoplacophora; Polyplacophora; Scaphopoda